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The Roman salute was widely used in Italy by Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Party, before later being adopted by Adolf Hitler in Germany.

Stroppa later deleted his post, Italian media said. He later posted that “that gesture, which some mistook for a Nazi salute, is simply Elon, who has autism, expressing his feelings by saying, ‘I want to give my heart to you’,” he said.

“That is exactly what he communicated into the microphone. ELON DISLIKES EXTREMISTS!”

The gesture comes as Musk’s politics have increasingly shifted to the right. He has made recent statements in support of Germany’s far-right AfD party and British anti-immigration party Reform UK.

Appearing at the Davos at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was asked about the comparison to a Nazi salute, something that is banned in Germany.

“We have the freedom of speech in Europe and in Germany,” he said.

“… what we do not accept is if this is supporting extreme right positions. And this is what I would like to repeat again.”

But some have defended Musk, including the Anti-Defamation League, an organisation founded to combat anti-Semitism.

“It seems that Elon Musk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute,” the group posted on X.

Musk has become one of Trump’s closest allies and has been tapped to co-lead what the president has termed the Department of Government Efficiency.

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